Will it Sell?

Just answering some questions from a client who wanted to know why certain information had been omitted from her resume and after a while my answers got repetitive - really there was just one answer: "I didn't include it because it won't sell."

For example, the two colleges she attended for a year before settling at a third and getting her degree. They're not ivy league schools and there's nothing remarkable about them - they won't sell her and so I left them off the resume to make room for more valuable information.

How about the retail sales job she had right out of college? She's not in retail sales anymore and it's 10 years later. It won't sell so why include it?

She wrote: "Shouldn't company names be bolded?"

My answer: "not necessarily - not if they won't help to sell you." (In this case, the companies were unknown and I wanted the reader to focus on the job titles, so I bolded those instead).

Finally she asked 'shouldn't I include the towns and states of the companies I worked at? By now you probably know my answer. 

If you have questions about what should or should not be on your resume, you can usually make a quick determination by just asking yourself 'does this piece of information make it more likely that I will get interviews?'

In other words: Will it sell?

Cross posted on my own blog.